Although better known for his later symbolist paintings and illustrations, Elihu Vedder was a member of the realist movement in the 1860s and a friend of William Morris Hunt (1824–79). Peasant Girl Spinning depicts a young woman seated in a field adjacent to an olive grove, spinning by hand. This theme of women’s handcraft stands in contrast to New England’s burgeoning industrialization at the time. Themes of work, and particularly women’s role in industrial society, were highlighted by artists as different as Gustave Courbet (1819–77) in France, Winslow Homer (1836–1910) in America, and Christian Krogh (1852–1925) in Norway.